[60% OFF] TerraWorld 2021 - Automatic Level Designer for Real-World Locations

@Fabbs Glad you found interest in TW. Please note that currently TW creates levels based on real-world data for user's point of interest. You can still select an island area and generate scene for that location. But if your chosen area is not an island at all, you can still generate that terrain and then edit using Unity's built-in terrain tools or any other 3rd party assets and make it as you wish.

Procedural terrain generation from noises and given masked areas is in our pipeline and will be added in future versions so it doesn't need a real-world area definition.

 

Please check your PM

 

Happy Holidays everyone. TW is on 50% sale until 15th January

​

 

Hi, I recently bought TerraWorld and I really like this terrain tool. I have two questions.
1. I see that you are preparing a lowpoly stylish template. Can this template change the terrain to lowpoly or just a low-resolution texture version?
2. Are there any tutorials or tips for modifying templates? For example, how to make a lunar surface terrain.

 

It is the same terrain whether using TW's included terrain shader or Unity's stock one but with stylish textures on it as you guessed.

A complete video tutorial on graph breakdown is on the way; in the meantime, you can check these getting started videos in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHZjBewgCVWfFqGb8a0FrRrUz_X3HgRo_

The best bet is to load any of the included templates in TW UI and go to the tabs and play with node settings to get started. From there you will learn each node's actions and see the results as layers under TerraWorld gameobject in the scene hierarchy.

 

Hi, I've just purchased Terraworld but running into problems as the Interactive Map will not load, the process seems to hang at this point. I can search for a location fine but when I press the place markbutton (like at ~14s into your tutorial video) the Interactive Map window pops up but is blank. Can you help with this please.
I am running on iMac with OS 10.15.2 (Catalina). I have tried with Unity 2018.4.15f1 and also 2019.2.17f1 with the same issue in each case. Thanks.

 

Thinking this may be related to the fix for the missing dll errors on Mac systems that you posted on 21 Dec. I've downloaded and made most of the changes however it looks like I need to change your_mono_version to the version of mono in use by my version of Unity. I'm not familiar with Unity scripting and thus do not know how to find this. Thus please could you let me know how to do this. Thanks.

 

Yes, that's the extra step needed to get TW run on Mac machines as you guessed. Please follow the steps provided as follows to remove the errors.

We prepared the fix for the missing dll errors on Mac systems. Download the provided zip file with the instructions and needed dylib file included from here:
http://terraunity.com/TerraWorld_MacOS_Installation.rar

Mac users instructions:

• Check your mono.framework version from here: /Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/"your_mono_version"

• Find Unity config file from here: /Applications/Unity/Hub/Editor/your_unity_version/Unity.app/Contents/MonoBleedingEdge/etc/mono/config

• Open the config file in a text editor and search for the word "gdiplus".

• If the word is found, replace the following 2 lines with the existing lines or if not found, add the following 2 lines any where you want. And change your_mono_version by yours:

<dllmap dll="gdiplus" target="/Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/your_mono_version/lib/libgdiplus.dylib"/>
<dllmap dll="gdiplus.dll" target="/Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/your_mono_version/lib/libgdiplus.dylib"/>

• Also add the following line any where in the file and save:

<dllmap dll="Lerc64.dll" target="/Users/TerraWorld/libLerc64.dylib"/>

• Create a directory at "/Users/TerraWorld/" and copy paste the provided "libLerc64.dylib" there.

• Restart Unity.

There is no need to know programming, just open the files needed to be edited in a txt editor and add/change lines as explained. Get back to us if you need more help.

 

Hi, Thanks for the prompt response. Yes I've done that but I think I need to replace the your_mono_version with the mono version. However I do not know what to enter there. Thus could you advise how to find this out. Thanks.

 

@drchrisasmith no problem, in the first line of instructions it is stated:

Check your mono.framework version from here: /Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/"your_mono_version"

This is the mono version No. such as 6.4 which is the folder name.

 

Is that the top level Library directory? All I can see in there is iTunesLibrary.framework and PluginManager.framework

 

is it possible to use Mars data to generate terrains?

 

Hi, I managed to fix that, I have two boot drives on my Mac and the Mono-Framework was on the other one. I copied across to the other drive and now I've managed to progress. I also had a security issue with the libLerc64.dylib file but enabled that through Security and Privacy settings. The first time I tried to generate I received an error "Exceptionownloading Elevation Data Door:Aborted" but tried again and it's just worked fine by the look of it.

I'll start exploring now!

Many thanks for your help.

 

Glad you could sort it out and thanks for reporting. Let us know if you need more help running TW in your projects and enjoy creating worlds with it.

 

It is already implemented and will be available in the next version update which adds the ability to the "Heightmap Source" node to also take user customized heightmap (in your case Mars) instead of locked Earth heightmap in order to do the rest of world generation based on that surface.

 

Is this normal for a fresh install on 2018.4.11f1 LTS ?

Also sent the bug report. From the same handle as you see here.


***Edit
Just saw HDRP isn't supported yet. That might be my problem.

 

Yes, SRP (HDRP, URP) support is on the way and will be released soon.

 

Very nice product! I have several questions.
Does TerraLand or TerraWorld come with a whole earth (globe) model? Is it possible to create a whole earth map? Does it place and project the terrain tiles in a geographic coordinate system? From the demos I've seen, it appears that it is limited to generating smaller maps and that a map of the whole earth is not possible. If it is possible, could you please provide screenshots of how it is done through the TerraWorld or TerraLand GUI?

Also, can the genereated TerraWorld terrain be used in other custom Unity applications? Am I free to use the generated terrain for any use case? Is there a way to review the license and terms before purchase?

 

Currently, TerraWorld is limited to static in-editor worlds and no runtime streaming is implemented but TerraLand does have various forms of world generation. It comes with 3 main modes as follows:

• Static and in-editor world generation:

• Offline Streaming (Large-scale streaming worlds via user local servers)

- Tutorial:

- Showcases:

• Online Streaming (Endless Earth streaming from ESRI servers)

- Tutorial:

- Showcases: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPckIjjljKU

Terrain tiles will be placed based on geo-coordinates converted to Unity world space and can retrieve player position coordinates in engine. TerraLand comes with a demo scene for geo-referencing operations.

You are absolutely free to include generated world in both TerraWorld and TerraLand in any free or commercial applications. Here is the EULA for using TerraWorld which is the same for TerraLand:

Please note that real-world data used in your projects is a different topic and the above statement only refer to our products.

 

Hi,
I've just purchased Terraworld last night, and made a fresh Unity 2019.2.17.f1 project and have built a terrain and textured it. My problem is that the normal maps for the terrain layers are not working. As a side note, when doing the initial setup, I noticed that my version of Unity does not have the this option - "5. Set Scripting Runtime Version to .Net 4.x" . I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but I thought I would point that out, just in case it's related to the problem.

Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

@Bingobuzzard Thanks for the heads up. No, everything is fine on your side and no other extra steps are needed to install TW in your project, the "Scripting Runtime Version" option in Player settings has been removed in the latest Unity versions.

Regarding the normal maps, are you sure the inserted texture is flagged as normalmap in texture importer settings? What terrain material is used on terrain (TW's custom shader or Unity's stock shader)? Can you share shots for the issue?

 

Took me a while, but I finally found the config file on my Mac (10.15.3):
/Applications/your_unity_version/Unity.app/Contents/MonoBleedingEdge/etc/mono/config

Also in /Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/ folder I have 3 folders: 5.18.1, 6.6.0 and Current. 6.6.6 and Current would just give me a green Interactive Map. 5.18.1 seems to working fine now.

 

@syphon1977 Glad you could sort it out and thanks for reporting. Hope Unity supports System.Drawing.dll on Macs by default so you don't need to do any of these manual steps for MacOS. Let us know if you have any other questions here.

 

I've double checked the terrain material, and it is your terraFormer material. I've included some screen shots that demonstrate the problems with the normal. Note that the displacement on your shader is working just fine, but the normals are not. I've double checked that the normal maps are marked as normal maps on the terrain layer, and here are some screen shots demonstrating that the normals are not working at the moment, no matter how strong I set them in the settings. Thanks again for any help you can give me.

 

@Bingobuzzard Thanks for the shots and for the report. The issue is confirmed now and seems like terrain normalmaps keywords are changed since 2019.2. These changes are Unity API changes routine.

So to resolve this, find the file "Terra_TerrainSplatmapCommon.cginc" and at the first line of code, replace the following lines:

Code (CSharp):

1. #ifdef _NORMALMAP
2.     // Since 2018.3 we changed from _TERRAIN_NORMAL_MAP to _NORMALMAP to save 1 keyword.
3.     #define _TERRAIN_NORMAL_MAP
4. #endif

with:

Code (CSharp):

1. // Since 2018.3 we changed from _TERRAIN_NORMAL_MAP to _NORMALMAP to save 1 keyword.
2. // Since 2019.2 terrain keywords are changed to  local keywords so it doesn't really matter. You can use both.
3. #if defined(_NORMALMAP) && !defined(_TERRAIN_NORMAL_MAP)
4.     #define _TERRAIN_NORMAL_MAP
5. #elif !defined(_NORMALMAP) && defined(_TERRAIN_NORMAL_MAP)
6.     #define _NORMALMAP
7. #endif

Please get back to us with the result and if the solution is approved, we will add this fix for the next version. Thanks.

 

I've replaced the code as directed above, but it isn't working yet. Here is a screenshot of the code replacement and the warnings I get after it compiles. Hope this helps. Thanks again.

 

@TerraUnity Hi. I bought the asset a few weeks ago, and because I´m using VR with the terrain I generated with TerraWorld, I want to use Draw instanced option, but when I do so, it´s not rendered. Any option I could do to keep using your material instead of the unity´s built in?

Thanks

 

@Bingobuzzard Regarding the normalmap, I can confirm that it should work with the provided fix and is not related to the warning you get (Fix for warning at the end of the post). So to clarify here are the shots:

Normal Scale: 0


Normal Scale: 4



So for the "Shader warning in 'TerraUnity/TerraFormer': texcoord2 missing from surface shader's vertex input struct (appdata), disabled dynamic GI and meta pass generation" warning:

First of all, thanks for the report, seems like baked lightmaps were broken, to fix this, again find the file "Terra_TerrainSplatmapCommon.cginc" and replace the following lines:

Code (CSharp):

1. struct appdata
2. {
3.     float4 vertex : POSITION;
4.     float4 color : COLOR;
5.     float4 tangent : TANGENT;
6.     float3 normal : NORMAL;
7.     float2 texcoord : TEXCOORD0;
8.     float2 texcoord1 : TEXCOORD1;
9.     float3 worldNormal : TEXCOORD2;
10.  
11.     //float4 tc : TEXCOORD2;
12. };

with:

Code (CSharp):

1. struct appdata
2. {
3.     float4 vertex : POSITION;
4.     float4 color : COLOR;
5.     float4 tangent : TANGENT;
6.     float3 normal : NORMAL;
7.     float2 texcoord : TEXCOORD0;
8.     float2 texcoord1 : TEXCOORD1;
9.     float2 texcoord2 : TEXCOORD2;
10.     float3 worldNormal : TEXCOORD3;
11.  
12.     //float4 tc : TEXCOORD2;
13. };

Let me know of the results.

 

Thanks for the good question. Unfortunately Tessellation & Instancing can not work together in Unity and it's totally a Unity limitation. That's why we have added "noinstancing" in the CGPROGRAM to bypass rendering whenever "Draw Instanced" checkbox is enabled on terrains.

To guide you through similar cases for this limitation, see the following posts:

https://forum.unity.com/threads/tessellation-and-instancing.742805/
https://forum.unity.com/threads/instancing-tessellation.437245/
https://forum.unity.com/threads/eta-on-draw-instanced-tessellation.648247/
https://forum.unity.com/threads/tessellation-shader-has-stopped-working.526587/
https://forum.unity.com/threads/terrain-shader-for-hdrp.629803/
http://amplify.pt/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=869&sid=c7c99904aefbc08972fd4d9821734e48&start=10
http://amplify.pt/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=600

The bad news is, there is no single word from Unity team regarding this and seems like they are having a hard time fixing this issue even though the bug has been reported many times to the issue tracker.

And I can feel how less drawcalls and more FPS is so needed in VR. That would help us a lot to check if instanced drawing in stock terrain shader boosts performance compared to TerraFormer! If the difference is big, then we'll consider making another version of the TerraFormer shader without tessellation and with draw instancing feature.

 

Thanks for the detailed reply. Also just inform that the atmosferic script attached to the main camera also has some VR problems, in case you want to check it. For the time being I think I'll have to switch to the built in terrain shader (going from 42 to 110 FPS), but if there's any chance I could still use the snow coverage option, it would be very helpfull.

 

FYI, the Atmospheric Scattering system in TW is taken from Unity's Blacksmith demo which is an old solution and was not meant to be working in VR, but please let me know about the issue you encountered and we try to solve if we can.

That would be a good idea to have a non-tessellated version of the shader with other features left such as snow suited for mobile and VR, so that we can enable instanced drawing too. We'll add this shader to the feature list to be included in future releases. Let me know of your thoughts on shaders if you have requests.

 

I've been still trouble shooting, still trying to get the normals to work, so I've started a project in the latest version of Unity, but, now I've run into a different problem, so this is getting side tracked until I solve this new one. Here are the errors....

Plugins: Failed to load 'Assets/Plugins/x64/Lerc64.dll' because one or more of its dependencies could not be loaded.
TCommunications Object, DownloadDataCompletedEventArgs)
UnityEngine.UnitySynchronizationContext:ExecuteTasks()

Plugins: Failed to load 'Assets/Plugins/x64/Lerc64.dll' because one or more of its dependencies could not be loaded.
TCommunications DecodeLercFile(Byte[], Boolean)
TCommunications Object, DownloadDataCompletedEventArgs)
UnityEngine.UnitySynchronizationContext:ExecuteTasks()

DllNotFoundException: Lerc64.dll
TCommunications.DecodeLercFile (System.Byte[] bytes, System.Boolean is64Bit) (at <cd1d97892f354dfe9c16cd2d0cc66d19>:0)
UnityEngine.Debug:LogException(Exception)
TDebug:LogErrorToUnityUI(Exception) (at Assets/TerraWorld/Core/Common/Scripts/Sources/TDebug.cs:36)
TerraUnity.TTerrainGenerator:RaiseException(Exception) (at Assets/TerraWorld/Core/Common/Scripts/Sources/TTerrainGenerator.cs:318)
TerraUnity.TMap:AfterDataDownloaded(Boolean, Single[,], Bitmap, Bitmap, XmlDocument, Int32, Int32, Int32, String, String, Exception) (at Assets/TerraWorld/Core/Common/Scripts/Sources/TMap.cs:341)
. TCommunications)
TCommunications DownloadDataCompletedLicense(Object, DownloadDataCompletedEventArgs)
UnityEngine.UnitySynchronizationContext:ExecuteTasks()

I'm using windows 10. The version I'm using is 2019.3.0.f6
I can't update the scene. I don't know what to do.
Thanks for any help.

 

@Bingobuzzard Yes, it's a known issue occurred in the latest submitted version on AssetStore which has been resolved already and new update with fix has been submitted for review. Sent you a PM here with the fix patch so you can use it before store approval.

 

This video is an in-depth tutorial for TerraWorld during its Beta. The UI has been changed in most places but a lot of settings are still the same so it may be useful to you:

 

i'm not a user,

it's very impressive! i guess a lot of us would be very interested in watching more of this kind of tuto.

The tool is so promising that it's hard to understand all the possibilities...Those videos are very helpful in this case.

Hope you will make more!

 

@eaque Thanks for the kind words, yes this tool is capable of doing a lot of stuff and needs more in-depth guides and tutorials. Also we are going to revamp the graph system interface for the next version so it becomes more user-friendly and easy to use.

Please find other tutorial videos here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHZjBewgCVWfFqGb8a0FrRrUz_X3HgRo_

 

thanks guess i already watched all of them!!

 

@eaque let me know if you need help getting TerraWorld

 

I'm really interesting in getting this. I have two questions;

Does it still include the "Runtime GPU Instance Spawner" seen in this video?

Cause it looks like a separate script and I can't find mention of it anywhere else, and it seems really useful?

Also, do I have this right... If not now, then soon, there'll be a method of giving TerraWorld a heightmap of my own and use that, so I don't have to rely on servers. Cause I'm not that desperate to make real world locations and would hate to not be able to use this in the future if a server connection of some kind was unavailable.

 

Thanks, yes it is included in the TerraWorld package and under development to be implemented into the graph system. Please join our Discord server HERE to follow development through #roadmap & #wip channels.

Yes, currently it is a separate script and will be embedded into the graph as runtime nodes. An experimental version of the script is already available in the "Stylish Night" scene demo included in the package. The "GPU Instance Spawner" along with some other runtime solutions will be added to the graph system which you can watch them in action as follows:

Runtime GameObject Spawner

Runtime FX Spawner

Dynamic Colliders for GPU Instances

You guessed it right. We will expand the "Heightmap/Imagery Source" nodes so that users can insert own data files or existing terrains so that the world generation will be applied based on them. It will be added soon in the pipeline.

Also, current version relies on real-world data as the source for world generation but procedural nodes will be added later so you can generate terrains/worlds based on noises and math functions. This feature is still a bit far though but we try to release it as soon as possible as it takes TerraWorld out of limited real-world only world generator.

 

Hi,

I played a little with TW and i must say that i'm always amazed seeing some parts of the planet appearing in front of my eyes!! Playing with the map is an endless pleasure.

I really like the "background terrain" solution!! Tw is many tools in one!


I didn't dive into the graph logic yet, so let's talk about the exemples graph only:
One thing i notice is that in some areas of the planet i have a little elevation and mountains are not high enough to me sometimes.
-Is there a way (in the graph) to multiply the height scale ? to get higher elevation

More, In order to balance the "low" elevation res of some places i have few questions:
-I suppose i can add some erosion node to the existing one to have a better look?

 

We have the same feeling when creating parts of our planet Earth in 3D

Oh good point, thanks for bringing it up, we have disabled it in the UI but will bring it back in the next update cycle for sure so you can set the elevation exaggeration from the Heightmap Source node.

Yes, absolutely, you can go to the "Heights" tab and edit the graph there to add/remove/edit nodes and make a chain and connect it to the "Global Heightmap" module as the master node for heightmaps. The following image shows the nodes in the Heightmap graph:

 

Me again, talking about the object spawner.

I feel like you're missing a trick with this thing. I can't find an asset that does this anywhere else.

Go ahead and integrate it into TerraWorld, but I think you should consider sticking an independent version of it on the Asset Store. I'd pay good money for it.

Maybe beef it up a bit so one component will handle multiple objects.

One thing I'd add, if possible. Include a way to specify a texture (within a unity terrain or mesh object) that certain spawned objects will appear on. Grass objects go on the grass texture, rocks go on the gravel texture, etc. You've got slope/height/layer masking options for this but I think including a texture mask option would give greater control.

Anyway, just a thought.

 

@FractalCore Good points, thanks for sharing. Believe it or not, we were going to do whatever you said already

We are going to split up TerraWorld into sections and individual packages which one of them is the Runtime Spawners. It just needs a few additions and improvements until being distributed as a separate package and it has been designed with this in mind.

Regarding the masks for placement, we have already done this a few years back in our Runtime Streaming solution in TerraLand where a texture (in this case satellite image) was taken into account to filter placement based on user specified color with damping parameter in runtime. If the tiles are properly sliced into smaller resolutions then the pixel looping to filter placement would be practical in a frame such as Runtime Spawners in TW. The following 2 videos shows this behavior in action where placement also takes satellite image color into account:

As for the TerraWorld, we are going to add custom mask nodes where users can insert their own mask images for filtering used for texturing, placement, generation and ... Currently all created masks are internally created and passed through nodes. The internal masks combined with user-specified ones should be saved in a manner so that editor/runtime controllers should detect which mask layer is specified for what purpose through a universal masking system design.

As soon as we have a universal solution for masking, we'll port our mask scanners for all nodes and runtime scripts. We will also add an editor-time mask brush which you can paint onto scene terrains for specific layers (e.g. grass, trees, roads...).

 

error CS1703: Multiple assemblies with equivalent identity have been imported ...

 

@visualjump3d Read the first line of description in the store...

⚠️ INSTALLATION:
After package importing, go to Player tab in project settings:
. Change API Compatibility Level to .NET 4.x
. Change the Scripting Runtime Version to .NET 4.x (Not needed in Unity 2019.x & later)
. Enable “Allow Unsafe Code”
. (Optional) Change Color Space to Linear for better shading
Open up Package Manager from Unity's "Window" menu
. Install Post Processing from Package Manager
. Install CineMachine from Package Manager

MacOS Users installation steps included

 

Can we talk about legality of the real world data? I'd love to perfectly replicate certain places... Its for a commercial product... But your brilliant product would be worthless if I can't actually use it because it's data is from a license that denies commercial use.

Considering you've been at this game many years now, surely you can give a high level take on it?

 

@shawnepdmartin Generally all licensing and copyright topics clearly indicate that reselling, redistribution and resharing original content is strongly prohibited and against law. This becomes more complicated for captured satellite data as dozens of companies and agencies collect these data each covering parts of Earth which finally comes down into a single mapping service provider as a web service or on other platforms. Even these mapping providers such as Google, Bing, ESRI... direct you to the original data collector for copyright issues.

Back to our products, they all use ESRI data for scene generation and other mapping sources only for area selection and previewing purposes. None of our products aiming to resell/redistribute original data which is copyrighted and the data is used as references for further analysis and 3D conversion. If your game/product behaves the same then it is clear in that regard, if not (in some rare cases) you can still contact the data provider for the area of interest regarding licensing.

However, if you are targeting to use heavy loads of these data in your product then you need to contact directly with the provider and we are not the one who is in charge of these cases.

This topic has been discussed a lot of times before, below is some of those if you want to read more:

https://forum.unity.com/threads/ter...atellite-images-released.179358/#post-1306635

https://forum.unity.com/threads/ter...from-real-world-gis-data.377858/#post-2472935

https://forum.unity.com/threads/ter...from-real-world-gis-data.377858/#post-2484455

Sorry if all statements are general and confusing but I think the best bet is to ask mapping providers directly for specific cases and questions, because it really depends on that company's guidelines and that part of the Earth's governmental laws. But please ask if you need more info and we try to help.

 

Not being a lawyer, yet having created copyright materials myself in times gone by, I would comment: It depends also on how much or how completely your work is your work. For example, if you take a photograph of a copyrighted painting or image and then use that to paint your own image then you are probably not in violation. Another example, a famous photo is taken from a location, you go to the exact same location and take your own photo. An idea can not be copyrighted.

So I would chance that if you have a real world download to work from, what you create can become entirely different than what inspired you. So I would suggest that if I replace a texture with my own texture and use tools to transform the mesh landscape, add my own lighting or rendering from Terra World etc. - then this is my creation with it's own copyright standing. You could create something from whatever my work might inspire you to do, but you could not directly copy it and claim any rights to my work.

It's not so simple. Then there are considerations of Trade Marks, and Patents, and maybe Privacy Rights. Each of those has it's own nuances. In summary, I look upon Terra World or Terraland as tools, like hammers, pliers, or paint brushes.

Imagine a satellite flies over and takes an image of your home, what gives them any right to claim they own any part of it's location or appearance? Also it is not as good as the real item, nor does a change in the satellite image create any change in the real item. Copyright only covers an expression, a creative art, not reality. What's mine is mine, what you create falls to you. But don't copy a copyright image, be inspired and create your own.

My writing of this comment could be copyrighted, but I release it into the public domain, although please change it however you please so long as you do not defame, slander or libel the author. LOL.